New UCLA football coach Jim Mora didn’t waste any time laying down the law during his first real day on the job.
Shortly after holding his first official team meeting on Monday, Mora dismissed three players from the team. Freshman tight end Raymond Nelson and redshirt fresman defensive end Wesley Flowers were dismissed by Mora for a violation of team rules while junior defensive back Randall Carroll failed to meet academic standards and is no longer enrolled at UCLA.
“At UCLA, we have a high set of standards that we expect every student-athlete to adhere to,” Mora said in a statement. “Unfortunately, these three gentlemen choose not to do so.”
Carroll, a former wide receiver, saw the most action in a Bruin uniform of the trio. Former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel enticed Carroll to flip his commitment from USC in 2009 but he made more headlines with his outspoken comments and tweets than he did with his hands. He was angered when players’ bowl checks were withheld over winter break and took to Twitter to let it be known.
He was also under fire during his freshman season when he used a racial epithet to refer to former offensive coordinator Norm Chow in a tweet. Carroll was displeased with the amount of targets he was getting in games.
Nelson played in eight games this season, largely on special teams. He is the younger brother of former UCLA basketball forward Reeves Nelson who was dismissed from school by coach Ben Howland in December.
Flowers struggled with injuries in his two years on campus and never appeared in a game.